The present invention relates to gas-liquid reactors, and more particularly to a gas-liquid reactor that is especially well suited for use as an experimental laboratory reactor.
Experimental laboratory reactors are often used to study chemical processes involving gas and liquid reactants, as well as those requiring the presence of a solid component, in order to obtain a complete and thorough understanding of those processes. Such an understanding, for instance, is essential in order to efficiently design and use large scale commercial facilities in which these chemical processes occur. Even in reactors specifically designed to study these reactions, however, it is often extremely difficult to obtain accurate reaction data for many gas-liquid and gas-liquid-solid chemical reactions because gas-liquid interfaces are normally very unstable. This instability, which is primarily caused by ripples, waves, and other phenomena that disrupt the surface of the liquid, makes it very difficult to predict and to calculate the precise area of the gas-liquid interface and, thus, to analyze quantitatively these reactions.
Various other factors also contribute to the accuracy of data obtained from experiments conducted in gas-liquid or gas-liquid-solid reactors. For example, even if the gas-liquid interface is stable, the accuracy with which the size of the interface can be calculated depends on the shape thereof, and thus it is desirable that the gas-liquid interface be geometrically simple. At the same time, the accuracy with which the fluid mechanics of the liquid in contact with the gas can be determined, affects the data obtained from the reactor. Also, the uniformity of the bulk gas and liquid compositions in the reactor has an impact on the accuracy of the information obtained therefrom, with the accuracy of that information increasing with the uniformity of the bulk compositions of the fluids in the reactor.
A variety of experimental laboratory reactors have been developed and used in the past. These include the falling film reactor, the single-sphere reactor, and the multiple-sphere reactor. In a falling film reactor, a thin film of liquid flows down a vertical tube while a gas is passed upward or downward over the liquid surface. The thin liquid film is inherently unstable, though, and ripples and waves easily form on the film. When this occurs, the precise size of the interface between the liquid and the gas and the fluid mechanics of the liquid film flow are very difficult, if not practically impossible, to predict and to analyze accurately.
In a single sphere reactor, a liquid flows over the surface of a sphere. The stability of the liquid film in a single sphere reactor is somewhat better than in a falling film reactor. However, even in a single sphere reactor, the liquid film is still less stable than what is normally desired because of the gas flow past the film, and it is very difficult to agitate the gas in a single-sphere reactor without introducing unacceptable instability in the liquid film.
In a multiple sphere reactor, the gas and liquid flow over the surfaces of a string of spheres. The liquid film in such a reactor is subject to all the stability limitations present in the single sphere reactor. In addition, in a multiple sphere reactor, the fluid mechanics of the liquid flow are extremely complicated due to the presence of pockets of liquid between adjacent spheres. Moreover, the compositions of both the liquid and the gas vary significantly along the path of the flow of those fluids through the reactor.